Boat I'm looking at has a hard time shifting into neutral...
 

I'm looking at buying a boat with an Alpha drive and the owner says you have to jiggle the throttle to get the boat into neutral when in reverse.

Is this likely a drive related issue that will cost a fair amount to fix or is it likely something in the throttle linkage/shifter?

Thanks a lot for the help before I pull the trigger on this boat!

Its the cut out switch, pretty simple fix. Look on one of the exhaust manifolds where the primary cable meets the intermediate cable. There should be a small black and red (but possibly all black or grey) micro switch. With the engine running flick the switch and it should kill the engine. Power had to be interrupted for the dog gears to be able to disengage, this is done by momentarily interrupting the ignition vie this switch.

There is not as much to adjusting this system as there is to having it clean and free functioning to work properly. The cables and the bracket need to move freely, without this working it is very hard to pull out of gear. Going in gear it is not as necessary (if at all).

+2

Glassdave and F inscreenname,

Thanks very much! I'm going to go ahead and pull the trigger on the boat this weekend. It's not some 50 foot Mystic with 1350s, but I'm extremely excited and will upgrade to something more Offshoreonly worthy in a few years.

It's a 19 foot bow rider that will be used for babe transport and skiing. It has a brand new interior, a killer stereo, and is extremely clean with good maintenance record history that has been garage kept and winterized every year.